


Asking you to Dance

by Chaneladdict



Series: A Little TLC [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crush at First Sight, F/M, He mostly wants Natasha and popcorn, Sarky UST, Slow Dancing, Steve doesn't want to go on a date, Steve gets ready for a date, Steve never gets what he wants, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 13:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1985199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaneladdict/pseuds/Chaneladdict
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m asking you to dance, Steve. A little forward you may think, but we ladies do all kinds of things on our own initiative now. This is one of them.”</p><p>Tumblr Prompt: Forehead Kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asking you to Dance

**Author's Note:**

> A little RomanRogers drabble, may be continued :D

“It’ll be fine; really you just need to relax.” She called from the living room.

Easy for her to say, he was the guy in his mid-nineties going on what was for all intents and purposes his first real date. Sure he’d dined with women, hell, he ordered takeout most nights with her and they ate and talked in relative comfort. But this, this was different, there was asking and rules and expectations involved.

He looked at himself in the mirror again, being overly critical of every little wrinkle in his clothes, his hair, his well… everything. Her reflection appeared behind him with a smile as she watched him watch her.

“You look good, so stop worrying. Trust me, I would tell you, we aren’t going to send you out with that poor unsuspecting girl not looking or feeling your best. Now look at me.”

He turned and she did her best to straighten up his tie. She had insisted he dress up, she was aiming for smart casual, but he had insisted on a tie – gentlemen wore ties when they took ladies out to dinner and dancing, he didn’t care if it wasn’t the done thing.

He took another deep breath and it made Natasha laugh as she padded in front him back into the living room. He wasn’t going to lie, the transition to living at Stark – Avengers Tower was an odd one, but having her next door made it seem more normal somehow, but not by much.

“Who’s we?” He asked as she threw herself down on the couch, reaching for her half-finished bowl of popcorn.

“You know, me and Jarvis.”

Yeah, the ever present robot voice was something that took a hell of a lot of getting used to.

“Jarvis, tell Cap he looks the most handsome man to ever handsome.” She said with a grin, sarcasm dripping from her tone.

The English accented robot complied, making him roll his eyes.

“See? And he wouldn’t lie.”

She thought about it.

“Though, he might. Remind me to ask Stark if bots can lie yet. Anyway, what time is she getting here?”

“Eight. We have dinner reservations for eight thirty, so… I still can’t believe you suggested she pick ME up, I mean that has to be so –“

“Unchivalrous? Probably, but come on. She works for Stark Industries, she has three degrees and a PHD from somewhere expensive sounding, I’m sure it’ll be sort of a turn on to be the one in charge here.”

He just glared at her.

“Relax, she’s a nice woman. She is. I had Pepper check her out.”

“Ugh Pepper knows?? You know that means Stark knows now too, right? Which means questions and inappropriate comments.”

“Um, Steve, isn’t that how it always with him anyway?”

So, she had a point.

He took a seat beside her, stealing some of her popcorn in the process.

“Are you nervous because you’ll be alone with a super smart girl?” she teased but he wasn’t falling for it, instead choosing to sass her right back.

“I’m alone with a super smart girl right now and I’m doing okay, aren’t I?”

That made her smile, for half a second before she stopped herself. He still counted it as a win.

“So it’s just that she’s a stranger? Sort of, I mean she has been flirting with you at every team meeting for the last six months… but I guess she could still be a stranger.”

She wasn’t, not really. He knew a lot of the basic things about his date, just not like he knew Natasha. There wasn’t that level of comfort; he liked their level of odd, dangerous, but somehow working, comfort.

“We all start out as strangers, Rodgers, don’t let that put you off. New people… while I’m not the best example of this … but they can be a good thing, or so I’ve heard.”

He laughed at that, stealing yet another handful of the salted popped corn.

“I guess. It’s just our lives are so… what they are. The idea of getting attached to someone else…someone who doesn’t fully get it. I mean it’s just the start, besides the fact that I’m old enough to be –“

“Don’t say it.”

“Her GRANDFATHER… and also be dead. It’s just… ugh.” He threw his head back and closed his eyes as she chuckled at him; he felt some stray popcorn hit him in the neck.

“Come on don’t be a wuss here Cap.”

“These are genuine concerns Widow.”

She just smiled at his sarcasm.

“Most pressing of those concerns then? Let’s work through this.”

“No.”

“Come on!” She muted the iPod with her little remote control leaving them both in silence. “Tell me.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Says you, I might find it a very smart fear.”

“I’m not scared, Nat. I’m just nervous.”

“Because…?” She drew out her word raising a brow at him and he knew her patience was wearing thin.

“Istilldon’tknowhowtodance.”

As soon as he’d said it, he regretted it as she laughed. It was bad enough that she HAD been his first kiss since 1945… now this.

“I don’t mean to laugh –“

“Yes you do –“

“Yes… I do. But come on, it’s not rocket science, I swear. Where are you both going?”

He told her they were going to a members only club that he had heard about via Bruce, they specialised in non-modern day music, and when he’d told his date, she had been thrilled at the idea of an ‘old fashioned evening’. That’s what he was, whether her liked it or not, old fashioned.

“Jesus Rodgers, there you go again, making me feel for you.” She said with a sigh, pushing a little button on her controller and a soft stream of music floated through the room once more. It was a slow song, a romantic one if he was pushed to define it.

“Up.”

“What?”

“Come on, it is devastatingly awful that you’re ninety five and have never slow danced with a woman, let’s put that to rights, right now.”

“You –“

“I’m asking you to dance, Steve. A little forward you may think, but we ladies do all kinds of things on our own initiative now. This is one of them.”

He took her hand, warm and soft, and so small – never mind that he knew she could snap his neck with that little hand, never mind that he knew she had probably snapped a dozen or more necks with that hand. In his it felt good, a little awkward at first, but good. Tentatively he put his hand on her back as instructed, and they started to move a little. Thirty seconds felt like a life time before she rolled her eyes and closed the small but what he deemed necessary space between them.

“You don’t have to leave room for Jesus, Steve. Besides she’s atheist.” She said with a sly smile before she put her hand on his arm, another at his waist guiding him before retaking his hand and allowing his grip on her to tighten. The room seemed devoid of air in that moment, all he could feel was her warmth and the smell of her shampoo or perfume or whatever it was, flooding his senses.

“Right…” he tried to speak, but his voice was too thick to pass it off as casual. She stayed silent too, as they swayed and danced slowly around the free space in his living room.

“See? You’re doing really well, my toes are still intact and everything…” she moved awkwardly in a way that seemed like she wanted to stop, to stop the dance mid-song. He didn’t want that, he wanted to hold onto her for as long as possible. He would never deny that he was attracted to Natasha, she was a beautiful woman, but more than that, she was smart as a whip – and with a whip probably too. She could kill a man with a coffee cup, but somehow now, in this new body, in this new time, she was the kind of woman that Steve found himself ever so enamoured with. It wasn’t just that they fought well together, though they did, it was something else. She was something else.

Instead of letting her break the dance, he tightened his grip on her, to the point that if she weren’t who she was, it may have hurt.

Instead she let out a surprised breath, her hand gripping his a little tighter.

“Steve…” her voice was quiet, unusual for her, and she refused to meet his eyes.

“Nat, what if I didn’t –“

With that she looked at him straight in the eyes, her face carefully neutral.

“You should go on your date, Steve. She’s a nice woman.”

“What if I didn’t care…if I didn’t want to?”

She just shook her head, though still allowing him to hold her close. Their dance now long forgotten, the song had moved on, but they stood still.

“Do you know how hard it’s been for me to find you someone suitable?” She tried to joke, but there was a deep sadness in her eyes that betrayed her, if only for a second, but he saw it. He’d recognised her sadness within his own; perhaps that’s why they made such a good team.

“And what’s suitable huh?”

She faked a smile then, a really bad one.

“She’s sweet, she’s normal, she’s good and kind. She’s nice.”

Nice was a thing with her, she wanted him to have nice things, to go nice places, and to have, it seemed, a nice girlfriend.

He didn’t want nice, he wanted her. Everything in his body was telling him to kiss her, right then and there, being proper be damned. He wasn’t a saint; he was just a man underneath it all.

“You’re nice…” he all but choked quietly.

She just smiled that sad smile once again, before shaking her head as the soft knock came to the front door.

“I’m really not, and you need to remember that, Rodgers. I’m not what you need.”

The knock came to the door again, this time a little bit more forcefully. Natasha stepped back and out of his arms, the air between them as thick as anything he could remember feeling.

“Right…”

He felt she was wrong, that everyone deserved a second chance at life – hell – he’d gotten one, why couldn’t she? But, the timing, as with most things in Steve’s life, wasn’t there. So instead of standing and hashing it out like he wanted, he did what he always did. The right thing.

He leaned over tucking her hair behind her ear, astonished that she let him, before he placed a soft and decidedly chaste kiss on her forehead. He ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach and the sad line of her mouth.

“Thank you for the dance…” he whispered failing to lighten his tone. She smiled again, stepping further away from him, with a nod.

“Enjoy your date.”


End file.
